Let's Erase Hate!

Learning about the Laramie Project, I felt the need to learn more about Matthew Shepard. In Laramie Wyoming around October 1998, Matthew was brutally attacked and was left alone. When Matthew Shepard passed away (days later) many people spoke out from the hate crime. Since Matthew Shepard passed away, the Matthew Shepard Foundation was created by his parents who continue to share their story.

As some of you may know, I've also made a thread on KH-Vids about myself and some struggles that I was facing.

This year I interviewed Judy Shepard to continue her message of erasing hate and notify viewers about the major concern of gay bashing and acceptance through the younger and older generations.

The interview will be seen on public access channels across the U.S on May 16 2013.

Along with informing everyone about this interview, I was also curious about everyone's opinions about equality, same rights and erasing hate.

In order to put an end to it, we must react...

 

As a gay person myself I feel like we are slowly becoming more accepted but not everyone is willing to see things so we must try and reach out to them!

 

Racism, sexism, and other hate-related things shouldn't even exist in this day and era. Unfortunately, there are still people out there that hate others purely because they're black or white or homosexual or whatever, and it needs to stop.

At the same time, I don't think it's possible to completely wipe hate out of existence. Hate is hate, no matter how big or small. It could be anything from hating a video game because you're not winning, which isn't really a big deal, to something like hating another person simply because they're black, which is completely wrong.

Sadly, people will continue be racist, sexist, etc. However, I think it's more than possible to at least lower the number of haters in the world.

 

Yes you are right.
This world is consumed by the endless cycle of hate.
Hate was the purpose behind the eradication of thousands of people who are in the faith of Judaism.
Hate was the cause of the Ku Klux, Hate is what caused war, ect.
Hate caused many terrible misfortunes in this world. Although what causes one to begin the never ending bond of hate?

Well that's a good question. You see hate is created from many things, for instance: Envy, Revenge, Vanity, sorrow, destruction, Judgementality, rage, lack of certain things, .....many things can cause this feeling.
It's impossible to end this cycle that accrued for millions of years. You can't really change the minds of the ignorant people who believe in the ways of the Neo Natiz. Its strange because the people who hate gays, blacks, Mexicans, jewish, basically any other minority, have no reason to hate them at all. They just hate to go with the crowd and honestly it's really ridiculous.
Mike I like this idea and I really hope this can help the world in anyway, but in my opinion as long as humans exist hate will continue to live on as well.

 

I wish we could, but sadly it's next to impossible to erase hatred. Hatred is part of what humans feel. However, we can control it so it won't go out of hand like the hate crime mentioned above. Discrimination, on the other hand, is another matter. People should stop discriminating against people just because of how they look or who they are. This is seriously just wrong. People shouldn't be judged because of what they are, they should be judged by their actions, and personalities.

 

Hatred is a component of the human. It's not something that can be removed. Instead of focusing on trying to make it so every single person on Earth feels no hatred, we should be focusing more on keeping that to yourself.
See, my personal belief is that a person can think whatever they want, whether it's apples taste good with peanut butter, or that people of the Jewist Faith are causing all of Germany's problems. However, as soon as that belief affects another person, they must be symbiotic. A person can hate someone for any reason, but they have absolutely no right o treat them differently.
Honestly, I kind of get weary of these innumerable campaigns to 'end' bullying, or hate, or whatever tragedy has just occurred. It's too idealistic.
And you know, it's a two way street. I know a person in real life who frustrates me to no end. Ze identifies as genderqueer, but chooses and act and look very effeminately. That's all well and good, but what ISN'T good is how offended ze gets when a complete stranger refers to hir as a girl. Somehow, ze just expects them to know, and calls them bigots and will outright verbally attack them for their 'abuse'
I really think that the path to equality is to stop caring. We put WAY too much stock in one's gender, or skin colour, with skill set, or whatever. If we really want equality, than we shouldn't really be making a big deal about how everyone's different, but that's the exact opposite of what it is.

 

Having different cirles and not caring about them all equally (familly first, then friends, then everyone else for instance) is quite natural, everyone social animal does it. It' s a component of the human behavior that many ideological leaders exploit, governments use it to instill patriotism for instance. Divide to conquer is pretty much the oldest political tactic in the book.

What I do is fight bigotry as eloquently as I can, whenever and wherever I spot it. Preferably backing it up with facts and logic, pointing out the fallacies of bigotry, otherwise it just comes of as a yet another brand of preaching. In my country racism is touched upon in this manner in school, when we study genetics for instance. Problem is fighting cognitive dissonance and/or stupidity is hard, you can lead a horse to the water but you can' t make him drink, however I won' t give up and watch it go rampant just because it can' t be weeded out completely.

 

I find there is no need for things like unjustified hate. Do I hate? I hate people who wrong me. Do I hate others for their religion, sexual preference, or ethnicity? No.

There's no way to get rid of hate. Hopefully we can find a way to get rid of the wrong kind of hate though. I wouldn't blame someone for hating a drunk driver who hit someone close to them. But senselessly hating someone based on their background is completely unjustified. Maybe one day we'll see a world where everyone can be equal, and not have to worry about being hated for being themselves.

 

I made this today based on what we've been talking about in this thread.

 

Your wording is a little clumsy here : sexuality isn' t the only thing people are bullied about, and one might retort to you why don' t you accept bullies for who they are then. Rethoric aside, what "irks" me the most about it is that it mentions a problem, but then it doesn' t address it at all, it looks like you just made it to feel good about yourself (whether it' s true or not that' s what it conveys). I hope the interview you mentioned in the OP offers something more concrete.

Just to be clear I' m not trying to put you down, it' s the opposite, I' m saying if you' re that concerned about it you should try and be closer to an activist than to a priest, I think that' d be much more efficient.

 

Man hatred wow do I sure know where that leads you.

See the reason why hatred will not live any human being at all is because of fear. The fear of being truly happy knowing that one day someone or something will try to take that away from you is what leads to fear. That fear turns into anger from thoughts like that coming into your mind, but it just can't be helped because this is the way humans live. The fear of the unknown leads to violence, death, revenge, corruption, sickness spreading and deals done under the table to be acceptable.

Look at it this way for a second. When you see someone being made fun of because I don't know they do things that aren't usually seen as proper... No they do things that aren't normal. So it weird and others fear it so to ease the fear you hurt what makes your scared right? Yea you can ignore it, but that'll only go so far. My favorite ones have to do with religion, and sexuality because these clowns are so ignorant. What are you mad about, hating for, trying so hard to do something that's fine without any outside interference's. Just because its not something you were brought up on, or seen by your home, even on the media(Which plays a huge role in how we perceive things in this world.) hasn't been on top of it doesn't mean its bad.

What if anything you do at home is not of the norm done in other houses and you are either shoot up for your ideals,(Done in many other countries crazy right? Naw not really you learn things for so long it becomes lodged into the people its just a natural thing.) Persecuted for doing those activities, looked down upon for how your household is ran, feared by the masses for what goes on in your house all because its different. Which again plays a huge part in hatred in peoples hearts. Do we hold onto the darkness to be stronger for what actual dangers comes our way and just hate it? Or do we hate because we fear of being hated on and need something as a crutch if things don't seem to be going the way it should be? Does fear itself eat us up so much that the only rational thoughts that come into our minds as a legitimate reason to do, say, and react in certain ways is with hatred that causes the widespread of violence, and more fear to the masses so that the vile violent acts committed is acceptable?

Holding onto darkness for so long gets you to a road that has nothing to look forward to besides more problems, bs, and at times tragic events. Its unfortunate, but until we let go of this fear that has got us all sprung, screwed up in the head I don't think the hatred will ever die out. Right now if someone killed someone even though it was righteous some place else one person will hate the killer because they killed simple as that killing is wrong it should be done. Yet these are the same people who support the creation of bio-weapons, nuclear warfare, deadlier war arms, stopping the enemy at another place not caring about how it effects those people over there. Which puts fear in their hearts of that country with the crazy defense and want revenge so they hate on them, and the cycle will keep on going.

So the only way to erase hate is to...
People only have to find out for themselves for its impossible for me to decide what has to be done. Yea great idea get some followers, but Human Beings need to see if we can not understand one another. The vile crimes, acts of violence, brutal murders, crazy shootings will not stop. One person can make a difference true, but in reality multiply minds on getting something like this done will always be better than one. Do not ever allow anyone to say what you believe in for peace, how you want to see the world run wrong. You can have your thoughts although you should be very mindful in the outcome of your thoughts.

Until then I am unable to let go of this hatred, and darkness for the sake of knowing who I am and where this darkness and hate came from. I will defeat this creature within, and when the light has its place in my body again. Hopefully more people from all over will get their light to let them know you aren't the one suffering. People have it worse than you do just make sure you light can bring out the light in others so no one will have it more worse than anyone any longer.

 

I didn't mean that bullying only happens in the gay community. It's one of the big factors, however I didn't make a public service announcement on bullying in general. I made the psa about accepting people who are gay.

That doesn't make sense. Why would I make a video just to make myself feel good? As for the interview, Judy Shepard talks about her son, acceptance and understanding and loving a a parents' gay son or daughter.

 

I realize that' s not what you meant, but that' s what your wording implied. As for the reason it could be perceived as something you made to feel good about yourself the vid I posted elaborates on that. Personnalymy guess is that you' re well intentioned but just not very good at wording things or arguing in general.

My point is that I don' t get your video' s point. I don' t know what a psa is, some sort of ad ? It' s all well and good to say that we should accept gays, but unless you elaborate a little aren' t you just preaching to the choir ?

Granted, accepting gays is not a position you should be expected to defend, logicaly it' s the default position, so what I' d do instead if I was to make such a vid is I' d list a few fallacies commonly used to excuse gay bashing and wipe the floor red with them. Hell, some bullies have the nerve to claim they' re the ones whose beliefs are being opressed, and the worst part is that they may be dumb enough to actualy believe it.

To be fair you did say that bullying led some gays to suicide, but sadly there' s a lot of bullies that information wouldn' t phaze at all. For instance those who believe that homosexuality is a sin tend to also believe that suicide is a sin, if you see where I' m going with this.

A lot of bullies don' t even realize they' re bullies, everyone think they' re justified. Their bullying atitudes are just a symptom, I' d rather go for the illness, which is the fallacies they' ve been spoon-fed. It' s a claim by claim process, and they don' t necessarily care whether their beliefs are logicaly justifiable or not. Not to mention chances are they' re not exactly the brightest bulb in the box, which is why it' s such a long and difficult battle.

 

As PSA is a public service announcement. I say that with some of my videos from history with working with the non-profit group where we've made PSA's. For example, we made one about domestic violence.

 

Oh I understood what psa was an acronym of, I just didn' t know what a public service anouncment was exactly. No matter, I googled it. Is that why they' re both 30 seconds long ? I assume you' re given a length window or limit, that would explain why you keep it superficial. It doesn' t leave much room to elaborate on anything.

 

They are generally short, but they don't have to be as short as mine. I guess a minute, maybe?

 

Erasing hate and prejudice is easier said than done. You might shut someone's rant down when citing your own experiences, but it'll take a lot more than a quick anecdote to go against someone's core beliefs and/or upbringing. Your best bet is to hope that every racist's life is saved by a black guy at some point... And know what? That may still not do the trick.

 

It's impossible to eradicate hate, it is an emotion, imagine for a moment that you are talking to your friends and somebody comes over and physically harasses you, the natural emotion you feel is hatred. Hate can be helpful, disliking people who cause trouble and whatnot, but blind hate is a different matter.

The reason why people flippantly dislike people because of sexuality, race, skin colour, religious beliefs, etc., is because of animal instincts. As an animal, one would grow up, learning what "normal" individuals of the species do and behave, and as soon as "weird" member appears, one is confused, scared even, and the next instinct is to dislike them, in case something bad will bestow upon one. This is blind hate. If a child is brought up in a white, Catholic, straight community, the young adult will naturally dislike ant black, gay, or different religion person. Thinking these thoughts, while not good, is perfectly fine if one does not express oneself on the subject, through verbal communication, text on screens, or hand written documents.

How I believe one can stop this happening is not by having these "informative" talks about the wrongs or racism, sexism, etc., but by getting these people, take a racist for example, to get to know a black man, eventually, they might get along, get another black man, and another, and another, until this person drops his/her hatred towards that group of people. This would be easier approached with the religious hatred, as it is less noticeable, but this does not mean one should not try.

 

I don't think the problem with getting rid of hate can actually be solved by telling people to stop hating. It seems like it has to come internally, if that makes sense? Of course, that is the whole purpose of telling people: hoping that simply conversing will invoke such internal revelations, but...if it were that easy, this discussion obviously wouldn't be necessary...but perhaps its because the people filled with hate are being told about it by people they don't really feel anything towards: they're mostly strangers, or worse yet (for the purpose), the people that are being hated. I think what would be most impacting for such people, in the course of conversation being used, would be those hateful people being told by people they actually like: friends or family. Though, if they share the same hate as the original person...

I'm rambling, sorry.

This is also something relevant: telling people to be less discriminant makes them want to discriminate more.

 

I'm sorry but I feel that I have to post something here. Not agreeing with homosexuals is not automatically hatred. I Personally don't the fact that people are gay... but what I don't like the FACT. I don't hate the people. Do I wish you would see things my way? of course. But who doesn't wish people saw things their way? I'm not gonna be able to do anything about your opinions and beliefs if you Truly believe them. I try not to hate on people cause of what they believe, even if and when I try to convince them to agree with my opinions. But just because I don't like homosexuality, doesn't automatically mean I hate you.